【18 U.S.C 2257】

Tim Burton's adaptation of the bestselling novel Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Childrenis a peculiar thing indeed.

Playing like a cross between X-Menand Groundhog Day8 U.S.C 2257 the often-frustrating film offers as many pros as cons, but can't make up for the glaring lack of charisma of its young protagonist Jake, played by a flat and surprisingly bland Asa Butterfield.

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Following an ominous title sequence, our story begins with Jake as a normal kid in sunny Florida who's abnormally close to his grandfather Abe (Terence Stamp). Despite suffering from dementia, Abe seems to understand Jake better than the boy's own parents (Chris O'Dowd, Kim Dickens).

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After a vicious attack from an unseen entity, Abe uses his last words to warn Jake of a family secret that unfortunately, now, "The bird will explain."

That bird turns out to be the titular Miss Peregrine (Eva Green), an "ymbrine" with the ability to manipulate time and transform into a peregrine falcon at will. She oversees a remote home on an island off the coast of Wales where she both teaches and protects an assortment of peculiar children, who aren't much different from the students of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in the X-Menseries.

They include a strong young girl named Bronwyn (subtle standout Pixie Davies); jealous reanimator Enoch; firestarter Olive; a girl named Claire, who has razor-sharp teeth in the back of her head; Hugh, whose buzzing body is home to thousands of bees; Millard the invisible boy; human projector Horace; bed-ridden Victor; two creepy masked cousins, and one Emma Bloom (Ella Purnell), a floating blonde girl who can control air and becomes the object of Jake's affection, just as she was his grandfather's before him.

That's right. These kids are all stuck living within a safe 24-hour time loop (which Jake discovers) in 1943 that Miss Peregrine created to rescue them from a falling Nazi bomb that destroys her home. The explosion is depicted in a terrific sequence set to Flanagan and Allen's old-timey song "Run Rabbit Run," during which the children don gas masks while Miss Peregrine literally turns back the clock.

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This all takes far too long to get going, making you wish she could not only reverse time, but speed it up too.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable SEE ALSO: Alcohol is the scariest monster in Anne Hathaway's 'Colossal'

Entering the film too late is Samuel L. Jackson's Mr. Barron, a shapeshifting villain with bulging white eyes and pointy teeth that make him look like Beetlejuice when Burton's earlier creation took the form of a snake-like staircase. Barron seeks immortality outside of time loops by consuming the eyes of peculiars -- especially children -- and he sets out to do this by repeating a dangerous experiment that probably can't even be explained with a second viewing.

Though Butterfield has proven himself a capable lead performer in such films as Hugo, Ender's Gameand The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, he seems completely lost here. Like fellow Brit actor Benedict Cumberbatch, he tends to keep the audience at a distance and it's hard to warm up to him, which may be why Jake's fledgling romance with Emma registers as ice-cold.

These two have zero chemistry and all of their interactions seem forced, though Purnell does her best to breathe life into the relationship. She has the perfect look for Burton's vision, appearing as a cross between Bella Heathcote in Dark Shadowsand one of Margaret Keane's Big Eyes paintings come to life.

Butterfield isn't the only Brit who goes to waste, as Judi Dench and Rupert Everett are also given short shrift. Meanwhile, poor Dickens is barely given any lines as Jake's mother.

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As a self-described "outsider," Burton happens to be an inspired choice for the material, as Ransom Riggs' 2011 novel offers the director the perfect canvas for his darkly humorous instincts. That's why it's doubly disappointing that the rules of this world and its complicated internal logic are so hard to follow. If Jake, had never made the transatlantic trek to Miss Peregrine's gothic mansion, what would've happened to its peculiar children?

The film features elements of Burton's earlier film Big Fish, which was about the power of storytelling, but the director is saddled with a weak script that goes off the rail in the third act, as CGI begins to dominate the picture.

While Burton relishes these VFX-driven opportunities, such as a sunken ship's dining hall for the dead, dolls fighting with knives, and a Jason and the Argonauts-style army of skeletons run amok at a carnival, the director fails to find the soul lurking beneath the surface of these sequences, most of which are shot with a generic steel-blue sheen.

Jake travels to Miss Peregrine’s home seeking closure, but instead he finds a whole new beginning. Unfortunately, 20th Century Fox won't be able to say the same with regard to a potential franchise.

This semi-entertaining diversion isn't bad as far as Burton's recent films go, but it's not very good either, and Jake is weak character to hang a future franchise on. The only way a sequel gets off the ground is if it focuses on Miss Peregrine and her avian disguise.

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